A late kick in the guts left Stoke City with only one point rather than three at West Ham. Peter Smith looks at the talking points with four games and the Potters staring down the barrel.

How many punches can a stomach take?

“Come in out of the rain,” said the Football God, before slamming the door in Stoke’s face.

If a growing number is resigned to relegation, it doesn’t mean it won’t hurt. It doesn’t mean that people won’t cling to the slightest glimmer of hope and it won’t be shattering when that is crushed.

Stoke have bemoaned bad luck but here was West Ham having three goals – albeit correctly – ruled out and their goalkeeper spilling a chance in the six-yard box to the bloke you’d trust to put it away. It only needed 10 minutes of organised, brave defence to get over the line.

But there are always mistakes. There is never a late twist in Stoke’s favour; the most recent last five-minute goal to earn a draw or win came two years ago.

Andy Carroll celebrates with of West Ham team mates Javier Hernandez and Pablo Zabaleta after scoring against Stoke City at the London Stadium. (Image: Catherine Ivill)

There are too many points dropped from winning positions – 14 now; that’s taking the lead 12 times this season but giving it away half the time. Compare that with Huddersfield, who have taken the lead 12 times too but held out to win nine.

Maybe this isn’t the door being slammed in Stoke’s face, it’s just deciding to stay in the rain.

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Surprise changes and panic stations

Not many people were expecting Geoff Cameron to step up as the first change for Paul Lambert at 0-0 mid-way through the second half of a game Stoke really needed to win.

The theory appeared to be to get Joe Allen further forward but in practice West Ham pushed Stoke deeper. And it was not Cameron’s greatest evening, giving away four fouls that excited home fans. Then Peter Crouch replaced Moritz Bauer and neither starting winger was on to supply the target man.

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Yet… Xherdan Shaqiri showed the merit of just testing a goalkeeper, Crouch showed he is still the side’s most reliable poacher.

Then the personnel looked promising as Stoke looked to their senior men to show composure. Yes, there was going to be a lot of pressure but there was international experience in every position against a team struggling to show any threat.

How had did it come to such panic stations?

Paul Lambert has to make his case

There is no one, not even Mrs Hughes and Mrs Bowen, who could possibly argue that Paul Lambert wasn’t dealt a bad hand when he arrived at Stoke in January.

The new man has shown many admirable qualities in the following three months, especially a respect for Stoke fans and a demand for discipline. Those two key elements are no longer taken for granted considering what had gone on previously.

He should nurture that bond by holding a Q&A session sooner rather than later to outline his principles, his long-term visions.

Paul Lambert leaves the pitch following the 1-1 draw between West Ham and Stoke City at the London Stadium. (Image: GLYN KIRK)

But he also, primarily, needs to show he knows how to win games, even when the chips are down. To show he knows whatever it takes to get over the line.

Stoke supporters have shown astonishing levels of patience this season but they desperately need to be given something in return. Whatever happens now might not be enough this season but there needs to be hope.

The Stoke support

It wasn’t the largest Stoke following of the season, with 901 fans in the away end, but hats off to those made a trip to London on a Monday night to get behind a team which has only won once on the road all season, when it’s on TV, when kick-off is too late to catch a train home, at a stadium which is spectacularly flawed for football.

If Crouch’s goal had only been the winner it would have been remembered as one of the brilliant mentals.

The support was appreciated by players and staff who flocked over at full-time. If they could just repay it with a miracle over the next month…

More questions than answers

As fingers are pointed at pretty much everybody with a Stoke City connection, there was an interesting line in the Telegraph’s match preview to suggest Mark Cartwright was opposed to “some of Stoke’s recent signings, including Kevin Wimmer”.

He wouldn’t, in hindsight, be the only one. Spending £18m on a player in a position where the club was already well stocked while others went neglected, who had barely played over the previous two seasons and has needed to be put on a special fitness regime, and starred in a 5-1 defeat for the under-23s on Monday night is not going to go down as a good piece of business.

But, if true – and it would be a strange thing to make up – it begs the question: what was going on?